A method and apparatus for splicing programs in the MPEG domain, wherein program
data is carried in MPEG transport streams (TS) of data packets. The data packets
carry application data, e.g. video and audio data, and a header provided with control
data. According to the invention control data objects are established for each
data packet for storing time references and data packet status information. The
control data objects are queued in different queues dependent on the data packet
status or on the status of a group of data packets. Control data objects associated
to data packets to be output in an output stream of data packets are selected from
the queues, whereupon selected control objects are assembled to a program of associated
data packets of different kinds of data. Finally, data packets associated to said
selected and assembled control data objects are assembled to an output stream of
data packets.